THE departing Blues brothers are driven by a determination to sign off with some silverware.

Gethin Jenkins, Casey Laulala, Dan Parks, Rhys Thomas, Richie Rees and John Yapp are all moving on at the end of the season, with Martyn Williams expected to hang up his boots.

Others could yet join the exodus but they head into Saturday’s Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster desperate for honours – and this is now their last chance after Friday’s defeat in Glasgow ended any hopes of a Pro12 play-off place.

“They want to finish on a high and sign off by winning some silverware,” said Blues coach Justin Burnell.

“It’s a case of them being able to say ‘whatever decision I’ve made, at least I can walk away having helped the Blues gain more success’.”

To stay on course for that happy ending, they will have to defeat the reigning European champions at a packed Aviva Stadium.

As soon as the last eight pairings were confirmed back in January, the Blues were installed as rank outsiders. But one of the departing contingent – Wasps-bound Rhys Thomas – said they will relish their underdog status.

“It was quite weird after our last group game against Racing Metro,” said the long-serving hooker.

“We’d won the match to make the quarter-finals, but everyone was saying unlucky, you are just making the numbers up.

“I was thinking ‘hang on a minute’.

“Everyone is expecting us to lose before we even play. But we all believe we can go over there and win.

“As far as we are concerned, being underdogs will be a good thing for us. I just hope everyone keeps building them up really.

“We do pretty well away from home in Europe and we are confident. I am sure we will do a job over there.”

Forwards boss Burnell is convinced the Blues have the personnel and the track record to upset the odds in Dublin.

“When we are all on song and we are performing I think we can beat any team in Europe on our day,” he said. “Because we have gone to places and won, we have the strong belief that we can go anywhere and win.

“Let’s not forget we are the only Welsh region in the Heineken quarter-finals. And on our day we can upset anybody.”

It will be like a mini-international at the 51,500 capacity Aviva Stadium, which is on course to be a sell-out, with more than 49,000 tickets having been snapped up.

“They’ve brought in a World Cup winning lock in Brad Thorn, while Brian O’Driscoll is back for them,” said Burnell. “But, let’s not forget. we’ve got Gethin Jenkins, perhaps the best loose-head in the world, coming back. We’ve got Leigh Halfpenny, Alex Cuthbert and Jamie Roberts, all Grand Slam players, as well as Casey Laulala.

“It’s exciting, isn’t it? Why wouldn’t you want to go and watch a game like that.”

Kiwi No.8 Xavier Rush agrees with Burnell that the Blues are a match for anyone when they are at full-strength.

“When we have got all our big hitters back, with all the Welsh boys on board, we are a good side,” he said.

“For our European games this season, we’ve had the advantage of having all the Welsh players available and we’ve done well in them.

“With all those guys back, it definitely adds a lot to our team.

“I am sure when we go to Dublin at full-strength we will be ready to go.

“It is good to have guys in our ranks who won at the Aviva recently with Wales against Ireland and have the confidence to know what it’s all about and what it takes to win out there.”

The Blues secured their quarter-final spot by finishing as runners-up to Edinburgh in a group that also featured Racing Metro and London Irish.

“With the squad we had, we felt reaching the last eight was a realistic target,” said backs coach Gareth Baber.

“We were confident we could get there.

“First of all, you get invited up to Twickenham and you see the way the pools come out and then everybody goes on about the Group of Entertainment, as they termed it, which I don’t think we were over-enamoured with.

“But with the players we had, we felt if we could build in the systems and structures and the environment that we wanted around them it was possible to get to the knock-out stages. That’s what we’ve done and now we’ll be giving it everything we’ve got to take the next step.”